The Inheritance

by Peter Stephan Jungk, Michael Hofmann (Translator)

Daniel Loew, a poet based in London, has been told since childhood that one day he would become his wealthy uncle's only heir. When he learns of his uncle's death, in Caracas, a few weeks have since passed. A close friend of his uncle's tells Loew that he alone has been named executor of the will and blocks Loew from receiving his inheritance.

In a harrowing chase from Venezuela to Miami, via Hamburg and Panama City, on a background of political upheavals as Hugo Chavez attempts and fails his 1992 military coup, Loew leads a desperate fight to regain his considerable inheritance.

Genres: Fiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Peter Stephan Jungk (December 19, 1952 in Santa Monica, California) is an American, German speaking novelist.

Peter Stephan Jungk was born to futurologist Robert Jungk. He grew up in the United States and after 1957 in Vienna. From 1968 to 1970 he attended the Robert-Steiner-School in Berlin. He lived in Salzburg from 1970 till he took his Matura in 1972. In 1973 Peter Stephan Jungk worked with the theater of Basel as an assistant director. From 1974 to 1976 he studied at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

From 1976 to 1979 he lived in Salzburg again. In 1979 he worked with Peter Handke on filming Handke's The Left-Handed Woman as an assistant director. In 1980 Jungk attended a Torah School in Jerusalem. He moved back to Vienna in 1981. Since 1988 he is living in Paris with his wife, photographer Lillian Birnbaum. In 1994 their daughter Adah Dylan was born.

Peter Stephan Jungk is an author of novels, essays and scripts. In some cases he also directed the movie version of his own works. Besides that he translates from English.

In January 2013 the opera 'The Perfect American' by Philip Glass, based on Jungk's novel of the same name premièred at Teatro Real in Madrid.

Peter Stephan Jungk is a member of the Austrian Pen Club.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It’s not Kafka (what happens to the protagonist, David, is too believable) and it’s not Terry Gilliam (it’s too serious for that although I’d love to see him adapt the book for the screen). The characters are real even the minor ones. The bad guys are not as bad as you think nor are the good guys as good. And don’t talk to anyone about anything without first checking their family tree – you have no idea who they might be related to. The fundamental question that the book asks is not so much whether Daniel has a right to his inheritance but whether he deserves it. And if the man who begins this journey didn’t does the man we leave at the end of the book?

You can read my full review on my blog here.

[Ian Durant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A parable of greed, corruption, power and naivite in South America. Efficiently plotted satire well translated from the German by Michael Hofmann.